Boardman battles Ignatius in 8-6 defeat

Saturday, August 26, 2006 The Spartans' defense did not allow a touchdown. By GREG GULAS VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT BOARDMAN — The Boardman High football team has struggled over the past three seasons, winning just one of its last 20 games and two overall since the 2003 campaign. Coach D.J. Ogilvie, now in his third season at the helm, said this team more so than the previous two has shown him plenty of fight and guts; a real willingness to dig in when their backs were against the wall. His squad did nothing to dispel those observations in their season opener against Cleveland St. Ignatius as they did not allow an offensive touchdown the entire night. Two field goals and a safety by the Wildcats, however; their only scores of the game and a failed two-point conversion kept the Spartans from enjoying a successful season opener, as they came out on the short end of a hard fought, 8-6, count in the opener for both teams. "Whichever way you look at it, we still came up on the short of the stick. I told our team we played hard, but never be satisfied with this type of outcome," said Ogilvie. Defense was outstanding "Our defense was absolutely outstanding tonight. They bent but did not break and holding St. Ignatius to just eight points while not allowing them an offensive touchdown Well, that is just one great effort." The Wildcats got on the board first when Bryan Sylvester tackled Spartan quarterback Joe Bako in the end zone for a safety with just 2:00 remaining in the opening quarter. St. Ignatius held a 2-0 lead after the first 12 minutes of play. The Spartans would get to the Wildcat 21-yard line with 6:19 remaining in the second period, but Bako came up short on a fourth and five and St. Ignatius took over, driving the length of the field before settling for a 23-yard field goal from Nicholas Yako and a 5-0 lead at intermission. Yako's 35-yard field goal at 5:50 of the third quarter made it 8-0 in favor of the Wildcats, but a 1-yard touchdown scamper by Tyler Amendola with just 33 seconds remaining in the period cut the Wildcat lead to 8-6. Missed two-point conversion The conversion attempt failed and the Wildcats held to their narrow two-point lead. Neither team could penetrate the opposition's end zone in the final stanza, although the Wildcats' final drive ended on the Spartan 2-yard line as time ran out. "This is definitely an improved Spartan team. They are in the second year of running the Wing-T offense and doing some nice things with it," Wildcats coach Chuck Kyle said. "Boardman's defense is always tough and they have come a long way over the past two seasons. For us, we must now grow as well. "We didn't want to score on that last drive of the game because we didn't want to give them another chance with the football." Wildcats dominate stats The Wildcats racked up 278 total yards; 146 on the ground where Matt Merletti led all rushers with 120 yards on 24 totes. Quarterback Jared Roberts was 10-of-17 for 132 yards, including four to Sean Webster for 65 yards. He also threw two interceptions. Bako completed 7-of-10 passes for the Spartans for 100 yards while tight end Sean Polen had three catches for 37 yarders. Amendola had 21 yards on eight carries and the game's only touchdown. The Spartans had 185 total offensive yards while the Wildcats held a 12-9 first-down advantage.